G8 shifts focus from aid to farming
L'Aquila - G8 Summit 2009
L'Aquila - G8 Summit 2009
By Javier Blas in London
Published: July 6 2009 00:08 | Last updated: July 6 2009 07:33
The G8 countries will this week announce a “food security initiative”, committing more than $12bn for agricultural development over the next three years, in a move that signals a further shift from food aid to long-term investments in farming in the developing world.
The US and Japan will provide the bulk of the funding, with $3bn-$4bn each, with the rest coming from Europe and Canada, according to United Nations officials and Group of Eight diplomats briefed on the “L’Aquila Food Security Initiative”. Officials said it would more than triple spending.
At a summit beginning on Wednesday, the G8 leaders will pledge to reverse “the tendency of decreasing official development aid and national financing to agriculture”, according to the draft declaration seen by the Financial Times.
“The combined effect of longstanding underinvestment in agriculture and food security, price trends and the economic crisis have led to increased hunger,” it states. “Food security is closely connected with economic growth and social progress as well as with political stability.”
The G8 initiative underscores Washington’s new approach to fighting global hunger, reversing a two-decades-old policy focused almost exclusively on food aid. Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, and Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, have both highlighted the shifting emphasis in recent speeches.
“For too long, our primary response [to fight hunger] has been to send emergency [food] aid when the crisis is at its worst,” Ms Clinton said last month. “This saves lives, but it doesn’t address hunger’s root causes. It is, at best, a short-term fix.”
Washington’s shift could prove contentious in the US, as its farmers are the largest exporters of several crops, including soyabean and corn. The US is the world’s largest donor of food aid – mainly crops grown by US farmers, costing more than $2bn last year.
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a think-tank, estimates that Washington spends 20 times more on food aid than on long-term schemes in Africa to boost local food production. US annual spending on African farming projects topped $400m in the 1980s, but by 2006 had dwindled to $60m, the council said in a report this year.
Japan is stressing the need for long-term investment, with officials saying the recent food crisis stems from decades of underinvestment in agriculture.
The number of chronically hungry people has surged above 1bn as the impact of the crisis compounds the effect of high food prices. The UN will warn today that a reduction in foreign aid could cause more hunger and disease as the recession has forced up to 90m more people into extreme poverty.
The Financial Times Limited 2009
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6 Aprile 2009 3.33 Reset - Sito ad aggiornamento aperiodico ai sensi della Legge n. 62 del 07.03.2001 pertanto lo stesso non puo' considerarsi un prodotto editoriale ma un aggregatore di notizie su L'Aquila e sulla sua ricostruzione - Le fotografie firmate contenute nel sito sono di proprieta' degli autori, per il loro uso e la loro pubblicazione e' necessario chiederne espressa autorizzazione. Alcune delle foto presenti sono state prese da Internet, e quindi valutate di pubblico dominio. Email: 
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